Please help, can someone explain how to....

Can someone please explain how this website person got the background shapes to be part washout/watermark? It's the part I circled...

I got it from this website: http://scrapblog.com/
I would like to add this to my blog, but I don't even know how to do that! It be nice if someone just told me how to make the shapes, and how to personalize the shapes like with a pawprint or something instead of a butterfly.

A little tip here.

Bring in the photos.

You'll probably want to invert it, but you don't have to. I did (command/control + i).

Go the the channels pallet and command/control click to turn it into a selection.

Go to the paths pallet and choose from the flyout menu (the little triangle) "Make Work Path" and set the tolerance at 0.5.

With the new work path chosen in the paths pallet go Edit > Define > Custom Shape

This is will put it in your shapes pallet so you'll have the film strip anytime you want it.

Also from your custom shape pallet you might wanna save your shapes.

ADDENDUM: I had to invert it and then when I tried again I didn't invert. It depends on your settings. by Tennessee gator